#105

focus
Your gateway to International Standards

green
growth
 6
ISOfocus July-August 2014 – ISSN 2226-1095
ISOfocus, the magazine of the International Organization for Standardization,
is published six times a year. You can discover more content on our Website

42
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Director of Marketing, Communication and Information | Nicolas Fleury
Head of Communication and Content Strategy | Katie Bird
Editor-in-Chief | Elizabeth Gasiorowski-Denis
Editors | Maria Lazarte, Sandrine Tranchard
Copy editor and Proofreader | Vivienne Rojas
Designers | Xela Damond, Pierre Granier, Alexane Rosa
Translators | Cécile Nicole Jeannet, Anita Rochedy, Catherine Vincent
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34
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#105
ISOJuly-August
focus 2014

14
4 Social feed

20 6 Green logistics delivering to your door

14 5 questions for eco-entrepreneurs
18 A day in the life of Silvia Lorente

buzz 20
26
The curious quest for counting countries
The world according to Jørgen Randers
pages 12-13
ISO 26000 enters the EU arena 28 Join the ISO 14001 club !
Label it right !
34 BMW gears up clean cars
pages 32-33
The Antarctica fatality 38 Sustainable energy for all
The future’s bright, the future’s solar !
42 Singapore cuts carbon and costs
pages 40-41
CEO Forum goes to Ghana 46 Alexia advertures
Know before you buy
48 Online collections
 Why
green
is good
Parents are their children’s first
and most important teachers –
until the tables are turned and
the kids start teaching us a thing
or two.

Elizabeth Gasiorowski-Denis
Editor-in-Chief of ISOfocus
L
et me start with a short story. One day last month, my
seven-year-old daughter, Alexia, was leafing through my
passport, which I’d left on the kitchen table in readiness for
our trip. She was study­ing it with a frown and I assumed she was
upset by the “ deer in headlights ” expression on my passport
photo. But she was actually closely scrutinizing several pages
of immigration stamps marking multiple entries to Canada. The
ensuing conversation went something like this :
“ How many times have you been on a plane to Canada ?”
“ About 30.”
“ And how many trees have you planted ?”
“ No trees.”
“ I’m going to tell Ms. Jones.”

#ISOfocus_105 | 2
What does this tell me? First, I don’t want to get in trouble with
Ms. Jones. And second, perhaps I need to think twice and start
counting my carbon footprint.
You might believe that the worldwide push to “ go green” is com-
ing solely from eco-militant children (and their teachers). In fact,
this is not the case. In recent years, many big-name companies
have realized their way towards more sustainable and environ-
mentally friendly business practices.
Companies such as Wal-Mart and Target have incorporated
green changes such as composting and recycling, changing
transportation routes to save gas, reducing packaging, and
stocking their shelves with greener products. As a result, these
companies have seen customers respond positively to the
changes, with green product sales alone jumping somewhere
around 20 % since 2010.
Increased sales, however, are only the tip of the “going green”
iceberg. Some of the other motivations include :
• Legal and tax advantages
• Reduced waste
• Improved workplace
• Customer loyalty and public response
• Sustainability
• Awards and recognition
• Regulatory compliance
• Risk management
• Increased brand value
• But most of all, because it’s the right thing to do !

Turns out what is best for business also makes good sense across
industries as a whole. As one reads this issue of ISOfocus, it is inter-
esting to witness the greening of freight transportation on a more
sustainable and profitable path. With the International Workshop
Agreement aimed at developing a framework, the eyes of the world
are on freight to select fuel-efficient carriers and modes, report emis-
sions, and identify the most viable technologies and strategies for
emission reductions.
The question remains however: Is there a greening effect on the
global economy ? As a matter of fact, yes, there is. According to
The Harvard Business Review, going green creates jobs and new
industries. It is a catalyst for innovation, new market opportunity,
and wealth creation. Recent findings suggest that investment in
renewable energy stood at USD 214 billion worldwide in 2013. And
in the USA alone, the clean energy economy created nearly 80 000
green jobs that same year, benefitting virtually every state across
the country. Now that’s what I call “ green power ”.
So isn’t it time the world sat up and took notice ? After all, the
days are numbered until we finally move to a low-carbon future.
And it is the countries that act boldly and urgently toward this
future – with standards in hand – that will be best positioned to
reap the rewards. Perhaps taking lessons from our children will
drive us forward.

#ISOfocus_105 | 3
 Social
feed
FACEBOOK TWITTER googleplus Youtube Linkedin
Share with us
your thoughts, ideas Is Facebook killing organic reach ?
and feedback !
Have you noticed a decline in the organic reach of your Facebook posts ? Determined
@MariaLazarte to find out, I joined a call with Lynn Sutton, a Facebook contact for non-profits, to ask
ISO Social Media Manager
about the latest changes in the popular platform and what this means for us.
lazarte@iso.org What she told me was reassuring. Facebook is not cutting down on our organic reach to
force us to advertise, as some suspect, although paid boosts are one way to get ahead.
What’s happening is that with the network’s growing popularity, users are adding more
and more friends and liking new pages. According to Lynn, every day, the average user
has a potential 2 000 posts competing for attention !
Unlike Twitter whose homefeeds easily overwhelm users with hundreds of tweets (it’s
no surprise they have just introduced a “ mute ” button !), Facebook only serves us
what it deems most interesting and relevant, be it photos from a friend’s wedding, your
cousin’s new baby pictures or an update from your favourite brand.
With such tough competition, how can we possibly get ahead ? Lynn’s advice is simple :
make great content. Facebook uses a specially designed algorithm to decide who will
see your posts. Noticed those usual suspects liking everything you say ? The more
a person interacts with your page, the more often he/she will receive your content.
Facebook also takes into account how well your past posts performed, how engaging
your current post is and how long ago you posted it, to name but a few criteria.
As social networks continue to spring all over the place, Facebook is on a crusade to
keep its users on board by promising them targeted and original content. One recent
initiative, said Lynn, is reducing the visibility of posts that directly ask to “ like ”, “ share ”
or “ comment ” because they are often associated with “ spammy ” content. So if this
has been your strategy until now, it’s time to change tack. But that’s not all that came
out of my call with Lynn, so read on for more advice.

“ Organic ” versus “ Paid ”

Organic reach refers
to the number of people
who will see your content
Geeks corner !
without you having to pay
Do you think it’s better to have for it through advertisements
a filtered feed like Facebook and boosted posts.
or to see it all like Twitter ?
tinyurl.com/filteredfeed
TTWITTERp tip fFACEBOOKr all ygoogleplusur pLinkedinsts

1
2
Target your post – By narrowing
down your audience (age, industry,
country, etc.), you can reach the most
interested people.

3
Encourage interaction –
Include a call to action and be
clear about why your audience
should click on your links. This
should get your fans chatting,
liking and sharing.

45
Don’t overpost – It’s always a bad
idea to overwhelm your followers.
Remember they use Facebook to see
other content too.

Focus on the good – Positive content makes your fans feel

good about the world (and your post !). Overusing negative or
sad content can numb your audience to its impact.

Make it visual – Photos are by far

the most popular type of post. Make
sure you always have great, relevant
visuals to attract attention.

#ISOfocus_105 | 5
 Green
logistics
delivering
to your door
#ISOfocus_105 | 6
As the movement of goods around the globe increases to
sustain our modern economy, so do the logistics costs and
environmental impacts. Happily, large-scale harmonization
is now underway to benchmark fuel consumption and reduce
the emissions by freight shippers and carriers in the hope
of shrinking the sector’s growing carbon footprint.
#ISOfocus_105 | 7
 Since global warming reared its ugly head almost four decades ago, we have been
scrambling to turn back the clocks. Earth’s average temperature has risen by 0.8 °C
over the past century and is projected to rise another 4 °C or 5 °C over the next hun-
dred years. And the preponderance of evidence says it’s human. But do we stop to
think as we drive to work each day in the comfort of our individual cars, or when
we fly off to far-flung lands for our well-deserved summer break ?
Transport accounts for half the global oil consumption and nearly 20 % of world
energy use, of which approximately 40 % go into urban transport alone. And the
International Energy Agency (IEA) expects this figure to double by 2050, despite
ongoing vehicle technology and fuel-economy improvements. While increased
mobility brings many benefits, the staggering rate of escalation creates new chal-
lenges, not least the amount of CO2 emissions discharged into the atmosphere.

Freight is Freight is great… or is it ?

But that’s the least of our worries. According to the US Environmental Protection
at the root Agency (EPA), of the 28 % of greenhouse gas emissions produced by the transpor-
tation sector, approximately 30 % is freight-related. Freight is at the root of our

of our economy. economy. Along with the growing volume of global business, international transport
has become more and more important in worldwide deliveries. In today’s fast-paced,
dynamic marketplace, billions of tonnes of goods are shipped around the globe to
meet consumers’ seasonal tastes and demands.
Speed to market is crucial, especially with perishables. How else would we get our
pineapples from Central America, avocados from Israel and sundry Chinese imports ?

#ISOfocus_105 | 8
 In order to accommodate this growth, the world would need to
add nearly 25 million paved road lane-kilometres and 335 000 rail
track kilometres, not to mention 45 000 km2 to 77 000 km2 of new
parking spaces to allow for vehicle stock growth – an infrastruc-
ture that is expected to cost as much as USD 45 trillion by 2050.
But CO2 emissions are not the whole story. Air pollution from
trucks, ships and airplanes is a growing concern in developing
countries and one of the main environmental killers. Fuel use and
Action is environmental impact from freight movement is high because of
vehicle, vessel or engine size, distances covered, the age of the

urgently needed vehicles and ships, and their poor state of repair. These parts of
the world are also famously slow at adopting clean fuels and
modern technologies. Soon, it seems, getting goods across the
for a methodology planet to sustain our global lifestyles will leave us all choking !
All this has got the freight sector thinking and many stakeholders

to quantify and report are investing in strategies to reduce their transportation footprint.
Yet despite the greening of freight transport in the last few years,
the energy use and associated carbon emissions have been grow-
freight emissions. ing faster than in almost any other sector.
Why ? Because what freight really needs is a sound, reliable way
of calculating and reducing CO2 emissions along its supply chain.
Government, industry-led and commercial initiatives have been
addressing these issues in recent years. But while they provide a
valuable starting point, they stumble over potential inconsisten-
cies in approach in terms of the comparability and accuracy of the
carbon footprint. For example, which greenhouse gases should
be taken into account ? And should emissions from particular
supply chain elements be included in the calculation ?
Action is urgently needed for a methodology to quantify and
report freight emissions that is applicable to all modes and
regions within the transport supply chain.

The road to reduction

The Smart Freight Centre, a global non-profit organization dedi­

cated to greener freight trade, is actively looking for ways to
reduce emission intensity and increase fuel efficiency. Curbing
carbon emissions requires the concerted action of government
policies, industry-led initiatives for meeting emission reduction
targets and civil society lobbying for cleaner freight transport.
Yet the answer is not that simple. As Sophie Punte, Executive
Director, Smart Freight Centre, explains : “ An important underly-
ing factor is the complexity of the freight sector itself as an inter-
linked yet fragmented supply chain covering different modes
and regions, and therefore transcending the influence sphere
of individual countries and companies.” As a result, various
methodologies have been developed in parallel by individual
companies, countries and associations covering separate modes
of freight transport. The road to hell is paved with good intentions
and this proliferation of isolated initiatives, much of which have
been carried out without open discussion and cooperation, has
only confused the market.

#ISOfocus_105 | 9
Cutting down on confusion
Today, freight forwarders are served by a bewildering array
of methodologies. As Alan Lewis, Operations Director at
Transport & Travel Research Ltd., a consultancy company
specializing in the field of transport policy research, con-
firms, “ There has been an enormous amount of activity sur-
rounding the carbon footprint of freight transport, covering
areas such as methodology, calculation tools and the devel-
opment of programmes to encourage emissions reduction.”
Yet at this time, only Europe has a supply chain emissions
calculation and SmartWay, an EPA programme that once
focused chiefly on road and rail, has more recently been
developing modules for other modes.
On the international scene, efforts have focused essentially
on the development of ISO/TS 14067 for the carbon foot-
printing of products. Dr. Klaus Radunsky, who developed
the document and contributed to the award of the Nobel
Peace Prize to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC), explains : “ as things stand at the moment,
there is no specific quantification rule for any modes of
transport except aviation ”. He agrees there is a need for
coherent and harmonized methods in the quantification
of CO2 emissions for freight transport.
To add to the confusion, market-driven partnerships such
as the Clean Cargo Working Group, IATA's Air Freight Car-
bon Footprint, EcoTransIT and NTM are pushing for more
sustainability with emissions calculation methodologies,
tools and services that are effective but often mode-specific
and too specialized to have a broad scope. Add to this all
the bespoke company systems and national initiatives, and
you have a dumbfounding mix of methodologies.
#ISOfocus_105 | 10
Closing the gap
Despite recent efforts, there still remain a number of gaps
when it comes to coverage from a geographic, supply
chain or technical perspective. None of the global stand-
ards truly address the full range of issues that must be
taken into account when considering the international
and ­multi­-modal nature of many modern supply chains.
Instead, Lewis notes, they provide general guidance which
is only partially relevant to the transport element of a
product life cycle, and of too high a level to be useful for
consistent, detailed calculations.
Additionally, there is a need for a more consistent approach
to the metrics that are used to describe these calculations
and for default emissions factors where measured data is
unreliable, or simply not available.
Radunsky believes the answer lies in harmonization. As
transport frequently crosses borders, international con-
sensus is of utmost relevance and could significantly con-
tribute to efficient and effective GHG management.
A framework for freight
The Global Logistics Emissions Council (GLEC for short), a
recently formed industry-led initiative co-ordinated by the
Smart Freight Centre, provides a good starting point, drawing
on input from a majority of the established regional and modal
initiatives, including the above-mentioned market-driver part-
nerships. This will soon be complemented by the new ISO
International Workshop Agreement (IWA) for freight trans-
port, which kicked off in July 2014. Providing an open platform
for industry, government and civil society to rally round and
 discuss current practice and the outputs from ongoing initia-
tives such as GLEC, the IWA will focus on one particular aspect :
the need to work towards harmonized methods for coherent
quantification of CO2 emissions in freight transport.
This is no trivial task as it requires pooling together all exist-
ing experience and methodologies, but it is expected to lead
to an action plan assigning roles, responsibilities and time
scales among a group of stakeholders with a view to devel-
oping a harmonized and workable standard for the future.
As Punte explains, the GLEC provides two things : a frame-
work for one universal and transparent methodology that
everyone can buy into, and a broad sketch for developing
and deploying the framework of this methodology. The IWA
document will build on this and other work to create broader
stakeholder support for a universal methodology, without
duplicating or replacing existing efforts.

One size fits (almost) all

So where do we start ? Punte has the answer : “ As freight is

a commercial sector, it is important to let industry take the
An important underlying lead and develop a framework that works for them.” Future
standards need to build on the vision developed and ratified

factor is the complexity by industry and other stakeholders at the last workshop of
the European COFRET project for freight footprinting, which
took place in October 2013.
of the freight sector. The GLEC Global Framework for Freight Emissions Meth-
odologies is being shaped by industry to provide a credible
framework for shippers and logistics/transport providers.
Crucially, it will have global application spanning all modes
and supply chain elements so that terminal and warehous-
ing emissions can be included on a comparable basis. The
IWA can help by bringing in the views of legislators, NGOs,
policy makers and academia, thus ensuring the framework
is acceptable to all stakeholders.
Sounds good in theory, but with freight being carried across
road, air, rail and water, different methodologies are often
needed to measure the carbon footprint of the various modes.
At the very least, an international framework will ensure
that regulations already governing transport at a global level
(such as air and sea transport) are captured within the calcu-
lation methodologies. A general standard, while not perfect,
will help us get that little bit closer to our goals.
With respect to these goals, Lewis and Punte concur. Ulti-
mately, providing reliable benchmarked calculations with
sufficient geographic coverage should help businesses move
goods in the cleanest, most effective way possible, select-
ing fuel-efficient carriers and modes, reporting emissions
and identifying the most viable technologies and strategies
for emission reductions. And while we wait for that to hap-
pen, let’s all think twice about tucking in to another juicy
pineapple. st/vr

#ISOfocus_105 | 11
BU
buzz
Label it right !
Do you get frustrated with labels that don’t stick on the sur-
face of goods or packages, print that doesn’t stand the test of
time, and a needlessly complicated ordering process caused
by the bewildering array of labelling products on the market ?
All this could soon be a thing of the past thanks to
ISO/TC 122/WG 14, a new working group on labelling mate-
rials created to put some order into the confusion. Convened
by ISO’s Swedish member SIS, the group will concentrate on
drafting basic requirements that ensure suppliers and end
users talk the same language.
The information on labels must remain identifiable through-
out the entire life of a product – that’s 20 to 50 years in
terms of telecom equipment ! Pursuing a customer-oriented
approach, experts are looking at things like the intended
application of the label, the surface to which it is affixed and
ISO 26000 enters the EU arena whether it should be permanent or removable, alongside
other factors such as label thickness, resilience to tempera-
ISO 26000 has forced open the doors of
ture change, adhesives and inks.
the European Parliament. ISO’s high-pro-
The result will be two harmonized technical specifications
file standard on social responsibility is
– hopefully on track to becoming fully-fledged standards –
one of the international, European and
that lay down the basic requirements for designations and
national guidelines selected to help
sample testing of label materials, thus reducing the risk of
companies meet the requirements of the
faulty orders in the future. With all this information under
latest EU Directive on the disclosure of
wraps, suppliers and buyers should no longer come unstuck !
non-financial and diversity information.
Organizations with more than 500
employees will now be expected to come
clean about their policies, risks and
results regarding the environmental,
social and employee­-related aspects of
their business. This, in turn, is expected to
have far-reaching implications for human
rights, anti-corruption and bribery issues.
Drawing on a broad base of expertise,
ISO 26000 represents an overarching
approach to sustainability since it ena-
bles organizations in both the public and
private sectors to progress in all three
dimensions of sustainable development
– environmental, economic and societal.
Michel Barnier, European Commissioner
for Internal Market and Services, wel-
comes the EU adoption saying, “ This is
important for Europe’s competi­tiveness
and the creation of more jobs.” The new
bill is a step in the right direction and will
encourage companies to move from good
intentions about social responsibility to
good actions.

#ISOfocus_105 | 12
UZZ
Farewell to Karl Rohrhofer

Karl Rohrhofer, a successful consultant and long-time member of the

standards community, passed away on 10 April 2014, aged 74, in his
beloved Vienna, Austria.
A professional chartered engineer, Karl was at the forefront of modern
water and waste management in Austria and Europe. He invented and
vigorously championed the concept of “ lean technologies ”, adapting
advanced technology to the practical requirements of developing econ-
omies at a fraction of the cost. An indefatigable worker and savvy busi-
nessman, he created and headed several consulting companies including
Ökoreal and GWCC-INTERIVAL.
Karl was active on the International Standards scene for more than
40 years, promoting a vision of standardization based on sharing
knowledge for a more equal and just society. Attuned to the needs of
developing communities, he worked with an energy and conviction
that left nobody indifferent.
He will be remembered most for his enthusiastic engagement and
special charisma, sprinkled with a good dose of humour. The entire
standards community mourns his absence. The late Karl Rohrhofer (1939-2014).

New “ WAVE ” of mobility

for smoother driving

Your car of tomorrow is being

designed today ! Autonomous
vehicles, crash avoidance tech-
nology, car features controlled
through your smartphone, and
more – ISO standards are paving
the way for your future mobility.
With a plethora of standards
regulating the field, some of
them did not work together. But
just recently, ISO/TC 204, the
technical committee working
on these ground-breaking tech-
nologies, reached an important
milestone with a common set of
standards for intelligent trans-
port systems. This is the result
of a collaborative effort between
the European Commission (EU) and the US Department of Technology, established to address this problem.
ISO 16460, which is part of the Intelligent transport systems – Communications access for land mobiles (CALM) WAVE, a
set of International Standards for communication between vehicles, portable devices, and roadside infrastructure, will
soon enable the deployment of services that create safer, more efficient and more environmentally friendly transportation.
Singing the praises of this collaboration, Dick Schnacke, Chairman of ISO/TC 204, said : “ This achievement promises to
speed the deployment of systems that will save lives, money, and the environment. We are very grateful for the initiative
taken by the EU-US Task Force.”

#ISOfocus_105 | 13
5
questions for
eco-
entrepreneurs
An important step for any business is monitoring emis-
sions. What’s measured can be managed and what’s
managed can be reduced. The management and reduc-
tion of business carbon footprints can have a faster
impact on tackling climate change than tracking the
carbon trail of individuals, given the greater volume of
emissions. It’s also a fantastic opportunity to improve
the efficiency of business and its profit margin.
Swiss-based Quantis is one of those companies that
has made life-cycle assessment (LCA) its core business.
#ISOfocus_105 | 14
Today, Quantis boasts a workforce of some 70 employ-
ees and is one of the leading companies in the field
of quantitative environmental assessment : LCA of
products and companies, carbon footprinting and
water footprinting.
Today, LCA has become big business, but is it all that it’s
cracked up to be ? Damien Friot and Julien Boucher sat
down with me to discuss the latest at Quantis, what it’s
like to manage a leading company, the truth behind LCA
and the two standards that are at the forefront.
 For most people who
start a small business,
riches don’t follow. But for
some of these start-ups,
running a business can be very
successful. Quantis and Shaping
Environmental Action co-founders
Damien Friot and Julien Boucher know
what it’s like to build from scratch an
environmental empire based on life-cycle
assessment. Here, the two young entrepreneurs give us
an insider’s view of how it all came about and why they’re
betting on their new company, Shaping Environmental
Action, to make even bigger inroads.

ISOfocus : Quantis was founded in 2006 as a spin-off of
the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL). Did
you ever imagine the company growing so quickly in
such a short time span ? How has it evolved over the
past eight years ?
Damien Friot/Julien Boucher : The growth has been quite
impressive. In the beginning, monitoring environmental
footprints was quite rare outside of academia. Our objective
in the early years was to build a loose network of experts and
to diffuse our scientific knowledge as widely as possible. After
a few years, it became clear that a new trend was emerging.
The publication of ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 provided the
first framework for the environmental comparison of prod-
ucts (and communication of environmental claims) and
helped raise the credibility of LCA-generated metrics. At
this time, companies were using LCA to broadcast their
technological advantage, manage customer-related risks
or serve as a basis of discussion among actors in the same
supply chain – all very detailed (and expensive).

#ISOfocus_105 | 15
Photo : Joao Sousa
Two men with a vision : Julien Boucher (left) and Damien Friot of Quantis International, the globally recognized leader in life-
cycle assessment and sustainability expertise.
Now, due to growing environmental awareness, the focus is
changing to simple metrics. Corporations are being asked
to consistently and continuously assess, improve and com-
municate the environmental scores of their products. This
requires standardized, simple reporting frameworks and
harmonized datasets to ensure comparability.
Thinking ahead to the future, are there particular
business opportunities in which you hope to make
headway ?
Several initiatives on environmental labelling of consumer
goods are currently underway in France and the European
Union, and represent a great new business opportunity.
Quantis is developing Product Category Rules and calcu-
lating a product footprint that’s more cost-effective. We
refer to this as “ streamlined LCA ”.
A number of challenges still remain, however, including
the need :
• To ensure the quality of the resulting environmen-
tal metrics by participating in the development of
these frameworks. Standardization is a process
of trade-offs between science, applicability, cost
and communication
• To make Quantis evolve from delivering high-cost
expertise to lower-cost mainstream assessments –
while keeping employees happy in their daily job
#ISOfocus_105 | 16
• To tackle this new market by integrating two business
models, two teams and two ways of thinking : one for
services and the other for software (since easy LCA
software was, and still is, lacking.)
The development of several reporting standards, such as
ISO 14064 for the carbon footprint of products, the Green-
house Gas Protocol and many other national standards
are making great inroads. And this is only the beginning.
You’ve been participating in standards for over a dec-
ade. What have you learned over the past few years ?
We are convinced that standards play an important role
for spreading the use of LCA while ensuring robustness
and credibility of the calculated metrics. Being part of the
standards process is also a way for us to demonstrate our
expertise, network, and “ sell ” what we do. Most of Quantis'
associates participate in different standards developments,
including the recent ISO standards on water footprint
(ISO 14046) and ecodesign (ISO 14006), not to mention
numerous national and regional standards on the envi-
ronmental footprint of products.
The standardization of approaches and databases for prod-
uct footprints are still in their infancy. A lot needs to be
done in order to help companies generate low-cost, robust
and comparable environmental information on products.
 We now need to engage
in a new vision in order
to move from assessment
to action.
This creates high-­priority challenges for companies like Quantis.
As a first step, we will see new competition with lower expertise
entering the field. But in the long run, large players providing low-
cost solutions will likely take over the market, and this includes
outsourcing to economies with low labour costs. We’ve got our
work cut out for us to stay ahead of the game.

When companies invest in LCA, how do you make sure their

money is not wasted ?

Quantification is the key towards more sustainable companies

and products, but it is only a step. Our experience and research
shows that neither environmental management systems nor LCAs
will guarantee environmental improvements. This is partly due to
the issues businesses face that go beyond technical difficulties.
These barriers relate to business strategy, corporate structure,
decision-making processes, information management, corporate
culture and employee performance management. Today, we are
at a crossroads. Coming from end-of-pipe solutions in the 1970s
to environmental management systems in the 1990s, and further
to environmental information systems in the years 2000, we now
need to engage in a new vision in order to move from assessment
to action.

Any new projects or plans on the horizon ?

Timing is everything, or so they say. This is why we recently took

a new direction to tackle the business issues faced by companies
not generating value from their environmental management sys-
tems. We are now on a new path aimed at (a) integrating envi-
ronmental management and information within core business
activities (rather than a “ silo mentality ”), and (b) focusing on
actors rather than on problems. We believe in an actor-centric
approach where the right information is provided to the right
­people in the right format to make the right decisions. This
approach seems very promising as evidenced by our first project
and clients feedbacks.
To achieve this vision, we have recently founded a consulting
and research organization called Shaping Environmental Action.
The new organization is dedicated to applying these principles in
companies and developing new tools and methods for environ-
mental management based on an actor-oriented approach. The
logical next step for these developments may be standardization,
but this is still a long story to go. egd

#ISOfocus_105 | 17
Silvia
A day in the life of

Lorente
Profession : Director, ISO Operations
Motto : “ Who says you can’t do it all ! ”
Nationality : Spanish
Family status : Married for 8 years to Luciano
with sons Lucas (5 years) and Daniel (18 months)
and daughter Elena (3 years)

6:00 | I’m an early bird, so I try to seize some “ Mom time ”

first thing in the morning. I get up at 5:30-6:00 am and run to
get my first cup of coffee. Then my priority is my kids. If I can
manage to get them out of the door by 7:45 am without any
tantrums, I’m a really happy person.

8:00 | While driving to the office, I speak to Geraldine Tan

from our Singapore Pilot Project Office about progress in
the region. She has been seconded to ISO since 2013 and
is doing a terrific job reaching out with ISO activities, which
would be almost impossible to do from Geneva.

Photo : Lionel Egger 9:00 | Arrive in the office and walk into a meeting with
Véronique. It’s that time of the year to review financials and
prepare a quarterly forecast. Véronique and the team have
been number-crunching and the figures are in. I am pleased
with how we’ve managed our finances and met our targets
so far this year.

10:30 | Time to prepare materials for a people management

course. ISO/CS has changed dramatically over the past five
years, and so have the roles of its managers. We’re devel-
oping a new internal management training course to better
equip our leaders for their management responsibilities.
Exciting times !

11:30 | Negotiating with landlords, current and future ten-

ants, and defining our workspace needs to ensure the best
possible offices for our staff – at a reasonable cost. The move
Photo : Lionel Egger
of ISO/CS is imminent.

#ISOfocus_105 | 18
12:00 | Lunch at my desk and a quick
call to my husband Luciano to touch
base. This is followed by an interview
with a candidate for the ISO Academy.
Feeling good – I think we’ve found
ourselves a strong contender !

Photo : Lionel Egger

14:30 | Then it’s a coaching session with a colleague.

Am devoting a considerable amount of time to supporting
and raising “ high-potential employees ” to the next level.
This year, I am privileged enough to be coaching several
colleagues, and helping them get through their day-to-
day hurdles.

16:00 | It’s CERTO time ! I discuss the latest advancements

with Rob, David and Nicolas on the business model and
operational plan of CERTO, a database containing informa-
tion about the certificates issued against ISO management
systems standards. My colleague Dorothée has been
working hard in Berlin to make this possible. Can’t wait Photo : Lionel Egger

to see this great project come to life !

19:30 | The next hour is family time, as many nights of the

week as I can make it. Conference calls happen before or
after that window, same for e-mail exchanges. Giving 100 %
attention and quality time to my children is key, particularly
when I’ve been out at work all day.

21:00 | After the kids are in bed, I sit with Luciano and
quickly scan my e-mails. As a full-time working mother of
three, wife and, as my husband will tell you, someone who
likes to “ do it all, ” every day is a constant juggle and quest to
create more time. No wonder my inbox is never up to date !

#ISOfocus_105 | 19
curious
The

quest
for
counting
countries

Never plan long camel trips in the desert,

unless you can balance cross-legged like our
Bedouin guide, that is, to avoid pain.

Photo : Maria Lazarte

 Everyone has a passion,
whether it involves biking
the toughest roads or
collecting Star Wars figurines.
Mine is travel.
 Remote reaches
To be considered for the Guinness
World Record of Most Travelled Man,
Charles Veley had to travel to Bouvet
Island, an uninhabited piece of land
bordering Antarctica, that many describe
as the most remote island on earth.
It took some two months and a half by
boat with a meteorological expedition,
followed by a dangerous helicopter
landing, to reach the island, 90 % of
which is covered by glaciers. Veley was
lucky this time. He had got close twice
before, but failed to land !

Photo : Maria Lazarte

At a wedding in Khartoum, Sudan, where friendly old ladies relentlessly tried to

engage me in conversations I could not understand. Nodding and saying “tamam”
(good) made them smile, so I kept at it.

My love of travel has taken me far and wide. I have been thrown into a river by Veley decided
an elephant in Malaysia and attended a four-day traditional wedding in Sudan.
I have swum with manatees in the USA and flown in a hot-air balloon over Tur-
key’s Cappadocia mountains. I have rafted down a seven-metre waterfall in New
to “ retire ”
Zealand and hugged a kangaroo in Australia. Along the way, I have met people
who taught me a lot about the world, and the more I learned, the more I realized from his day job
how little I know. And so my adventures continue. But as all those who are pas-
sionate about an activity will know, there is an irresistible temptation to measure
and compare – be it the size of your collection or the speed records you break.
and start travelling
Travel is no different.
at 34.
Worlds most travelled

I recently came across an article on the world’s most travelled man. The story
focused on Charles Veley, a software company executive who has logged 2.3 mil-
lion miles and journeyed to 95 % of the world. Yet the controversy surrounding
his claim soon became evident. Simply put, no one has yet figured a way to
quantify travel objectively. Do we count countries, cities, territories or land-
marks ? And according to whose definition ? This is an issue that comes up often
among ardent globetrotters keen on keeping score, also known as competitive
travellers or country collectors.

#ISOfocus_105 | 22
Although not a common breed because of the resources,
time and effort that travel on such a massive scale requires,
these intrepid wanderers are certainly intense. Veley, who
made his fortune at a young age, decided to “ retire ” from
his day job and start travelling at 34. That’s when he heard
about the Travelers’ Century Club (TCC), an association
which requires its members to have set foot in at least 100
countries. Such is their commitment to collecting destina-
tions that the world’s 195 sovereign countries (members
and observers of the UN) are not enough – the TCC divides
the globe into 324 places !
Not content with joining the elite, Veley wanted to leave
a mark. By the time he was 37, he had visited 249 of the
earth’s territories according to the Guinness World Records.
Yet when he approached them to claim the title, the TCC
complained that it was impossible to prove that he had
been to all these places. As a result, Guinness decided to
scrap the category altogether. Incensed, Veley created his
own Website called Most Traveled People which combined
destination lists and users’ votes to dissect the world into
873 locations and rank out travellers, with Veley, not sur-
prisingly, at the top. But in the absence of global consensus

Flying over Cappadocia, Turkey, in a hot air balloon, I realized that I was not scared of heights but of our daredevil pilot who tried
to beat all others by flying as close to and far off the ground as possible, until he got reprimanded by air control.
Photo : Maria Lazarte
for competitive travelling, many define what matters according
to their own criteria. Jeff Shea, the owner of a manufacturing
Travellers that have
company in California, believes he has seen more of the world
than Veley and has created his own far more extensive travel covered vast expanses
list, which consists of 3 978 countries and subnational provinces.

of the globe
A globetrotter’s standard ?

As I learned more about these intriguing initiatives, something want recognition.

struck me. This general chaos and conflict is exactly what hap-
pens when standards are absent. Imagine for an instant there
were an ISO committee developing an International Standard for
travel counting, which they planned to call say : Guidelines and
requirements for quantifying geographical coverage by an individual
traveller. How would it get around all these issues ? First, ISO would
bring people from around the world together. There would be travel
industry representatives from different countries (agencies, guide
writers, maybe even airlines), competitive globetrotters, notable
bloggers, traveller associations like the TCC, and, who knows,
maybe even someone from the Guinness Book of Records.
Over several meetings these experts would argue extensively over
the issue and make a proposal. Aside from the question of how
to divide the globe into clearly representative categories that can
easily be ticked off your to-travel list, there are other points to
consider. What type of visit actually counts ? Is driving through
enough ? Or do you have to spend at least an hour, eat at least one
meal, sleep at least one night ? Do you count work trips where
all you saw was a conference room and the ride to and from the
airport ? Do far-away places weigh more than neighbouring areas ?
The committee of experts would discuss what constitutes a unit
of geographical travel, and define parameters that may affect a
claim like length of stay, purpose of visit, and so on. They may
also make recommendations for measuring and monitoring, and
might even propose that an additional standard be developed to,
for example, address cultural coverage.
Once a draft is completed, the voting starts. ISO’s 163 member
countries would carry on national consultations with a broader
group of experts and make comments. This process would con-
tinue until a majority – two-thirds of participating ISO members
– has approved it and the standard is finally published. If the
standard allows certification, then further guidance might be
developed to harmonize the auditing process.
It all seems pretty straightforward, right ? Well, just wait until
all the interested parties get together in a room and start dis-
cussing. Just think of Charles Veley and Jeff Shea trying to reach
consensus – each favouring the proposal that benefits them most ! Of course, I am not suggesting we need a stand-
Travellers that have covered vast expanses of the globe will want ard for counting countries, and there are no
recognition, agencies will think of their future tourism offerings, plans to create one. But this example can help
and so on. The good news is that by bringing everyone together us visualize how standards bring solutions to
and making compromise the precondition to a solution, progress the practical problems that arise from lack
is made, and standards are agreed. of global harmony and best practice. Real

#ISOfocus_105 | 24
 Photo : Maria Lazarte

The bright colours of the Cuban town of Trinidad enchanted us by day.

By night, the music took over, casting its magic spell to make us dance.

standards respond to market needs and provide solutions
to pressing problems brought on by safety risks, quality or
efficiency issues, by the need to open up markets or help
innovation spread.
Although I believe that travel should be about experience
and discovery, I confess that I have been guilty of country
counting myself. However, my record pales in comparison
to those of competitive travellers, with barely 39 countries
to this day (according to the UN’s definition, that is).
Still, I can’t help but dream of my next trip… Ah, so many
possibilities ! ml

#ISOfocus_105 | 25
 Jørgen Randers co-authored
The limits to Growth, a trail-
blazing study of how humanity
would adapt to the limits
imposed by the Earth’s finite
The world resources. It became the best-
selling environmental book of
according all time. In 2012, he updated

to Jørgen that 1972 study with a new book

Randers
that argues humankind might
not survive if it continues on
its path of over-consumption
and short-termism. In 2052 :
A Global Forecast for the Next
Forty Years, he raises essential
questions about the planet’s
survival. To learn more about
this revolutionary theory, I spoke
with the book’s author. Here’s
an extract of our discussion.
#ISOfocus_105 | 26
It costs more to do something
than to do nothing.
You give a rather bleak vision of our future in 2052.
What was your intent ?
Randers : My personal intent was that I have spent 40 years
of my life working for sustainable development. I am now
an old man and I have failed. The world is less sustainable
at this point in time than 40 years ago when I started work-
ing. And so, when I decided to write the book, I basically
wrote it for my sanity’s sake. 2052 is nothing but a descrip-
tion of the type of world that we, in the global society, are
going to decide for ourselves over the next 40 years.
How do you see 2052 ?
There will be slow economic growth in the rich world, per-
sistent unemployment, social friction, increasing inequity
– all the problems that arise because you don’t manage to
get the economy to grow. This will be against a background
of steadily worsening climate conditions with the weather
getting more and more extreme all the time (more droughts,
more floods, more forest fires, slowly rising sea levels, etc.).
This is going to happen sporadically – not in a predictive
pattern – and after a while, these things are going to get so
extreme that they will start to get scary.
What will happen over the next 40 years ?
I don’t think anything is going happen over the next
40 years. It’s easy enough to do something about it – we
know exactly what is needed to reduce the climate pro-
gramme. The simple problem is that it costs more to do
something than to do nothing. And, consequently, people
will not vote in favour of these solutions. The sad fact, in
my view, is that most people today in the rich world are not
willing to sacrifice the additional money that it would cost
to solve the whole problem.
You say that you wrote 2052 to appease yourself, but
are there other reasons for writing the book ?
My hope that being sufficiently arrogant and unpleasant,
and kicking democratic society hard enough, might trigger
someone to get up and say “ come on ” – this is too stupid.
That, of course, is the ambition.
Will I succeed ? No, I don’t think so. I think no one will rise
to the occasion. And then, the sad fact about this is that
the situation in 2052 will be much less attractive than it
could have been had we acted at this point in time. But
the horrible fact is that the people who live in 2052 – the
youngsters who don’t know any other future – will anyway
be living in their virtual reality.
You are in favour of intelligent regulation. Can you
please expand on this ?
I am not a free-market person. I don’t believe the free mar-
ket will solve the fundamental problems. I’m in favour of
strong government and certainly of wise regulation.
And the role of ISO, in my view, is very important and
very useful. The fact that standards exist that force play-
ers to act – “ a platform for unifying the world under one
umbrella ” (even at additional cost) – is wonderful. The
mere fact that ISO exists and has been able to survive does
provide some hope because it means that our democratic
society manages to make decisions in an egalitarian and
equitable manner. egd
As part of the Geneva University/ISO Master’s
programme on standardization, social regulation
and sustainable development, Jørgen Randers gave
a fascinating conference that was followed by 670
people in Geneva and many more via Internet.
Watch the podcast of the conference.
#ISOfocus_105 | 27
Join the
ISO 14001
club !
The ISO 14001 standard is
today a widespread benchmark
for thousands of organizations
around the world that want
to communicate to the public
and stakeholders that they are
environmentally responsible. Two
American university professors
explain how the standard helps
reduce environmental impact
and grow business, and why
more than a quarter-million
Authored by :
• Aseem Prakash, Professor
organizations worldwide are
of Political Science and
Director, UW Center for
joining the ISO 14001 club !
Environmental Politics
• Matthew Potoski, Professor
of Corporate Environmental
Management, Bren School of
Environmental Science and
Management, University of
California, Santa Barbara

#ISOfocus_105 | 28

With over 250 000 certified facilities in about 160 countries
since its launch in 1996, it’s no surprise that ISO 14001 is
the most widely adopted environmental management sys-
tem (EMS) in the world. So as debates continue about why
firms seek ISO 14001 certification, or whether it impacts
their pollution output and other environmental activities,
we decided a rigorous empirical assessment of the ISO
standard was in order. Our research – conducted in 159
countries over 15 years – revealed some interesting findings.
And here’s the verdict : ISO 14001 certifications are associ-
ated with pollution reductions in some cases but not others.
Also, strange as it may seem, countries with more ISO 14001
certifications have lower levels of air pollution compared to
water pollution. Furthermore, ISO 14001 is associated with
air pollution reduction only in countries where the gov-
ernment’s environmental policies are weaker. Confusing
results for sure, so how might we explain these findings ?
For members only
Our work conceptualizes certification systems, such as
ISO 14001, as clubs. Think of a golf club. Golf clubs offer
services that are restricted to patrons who pay the mem-
bership fee. At any given time, multiple patrons can avail
themselves of the club’s facilities and enjoy a round of
golf or a swim in the pool. Certification systems work on a
The cost of club membership
is the establishment of a strong
and verifiable EMS.
similar principle. Their key “ service ” is to allow members
to signal more credibly their environmental stewardship
practices. Only club members can deploy this hallmark. For
ISO 14001, the cost of club membership is the establishment
of a strong and verifiable EMS.
One might wonder why a firm would need to join a certi-
fication club to proclaim its environmental credentials.
After all, it could easily make such claims on its own. The
reasons are twofold. First, club membership sends out a
stronger signal when the club brand name is well known :
ISO 14001 has high name recognition given its association
with the ISO organization. Importantly, as more firms join
these clubs, the brand name becomes even more widely
known, which makes the club signal even stronger. Second,
because the “ rules ” for these clubs are made by another set
of actors – the club sponsors – firms’ environmental stew-
ardship claims become more credible than when they make
unilateral declarations about their environmental commit-
ment. And, in truth, a firm can create strong environmental
rules for itself one day and then toss them out the next. Of
course, ISO 14001 has the benefit of being sponsored by a
very credible organization, whereas “ other clubs ” have
less credible sponsors.
Firms (or their facilities) participating in the ISO 14001 club
are expected to adopt environmental stewardship practices
that exceed their countries’ legal requirements and thus
#ISOfocus_105 | 29
end up producing more environmental public
goods. In return, outside stakeholders, who
cannot otherwise fully observe and evaluate
firms’ environmental policies, can interpret
ISO 14001 certification as evidence of superior
environmental stewardship commitments
and treat ISO 14001 “ club members ” more
favourably. Thus the goal for certification clubs
like ISO 14001 is to make possible a virtuous
exchange of environmental stewardship by
firms in return for stakeholder appreciation.

Living up to claims

Given the widespread adoption of ISO 14001,

it is quite natural to ask whether it lives up to
its claim of improving its members’ environ-
mental practices. After several years study-
ing this question, our response has become
“ sometimes ” and we’ve focused our efforts
on identifying the conditions under which the
better outcomes happen.
We suggest two factors merit special attention :
the stringency of the government’s environ-
mental regulations and the (physical) visi-
bility of pollutants that the firms emit. More
stringent government regulations lead firms
to improve their environmental practices.
This has two implications. First, stronger
government regulations raise a firm’s costs
for undertaking additional environmental
improvements (beyond legal requirements)
in response to their ISO 14001 obligations. Sec-
ond, the reputational and other benefits the
firm receives for differentiating itself from com-
panies that are not ISO 14001-certified will be
lower because the average level of environmen-
tal stewardship practices is higher across the
board. In this situation, achieving ISO 14001 is
likely to require less additional investment in
environmental stewardship beyond what firms
are already doing as part of their regulatory
obligations. Perhaps counter-intuitively, the
pollution reduction effects of ISO 14001 are
therefore likely to be most pronounced when
ISO-certified firms function in countries with An important motivation
weak environmental laws.
Stakeholders expect firms to undertake a
range of corporate social responsibility (CSR)
is the reputational benefit
actions, such as environmental stewardship,
labour practices and so on. Given their limited to be gained.
#ISOfocus_105 | 30
resources, firms cannot do everything and need to prioritize their actions by investing in
those CSR issues where they can get most appreciation for their efforts. In the context of
ISO 14001 and the environment, this means prioritizing which pollutants should receive
more of their focus.
Stakeholders tend to monitor more closely the visible pollutants. This means
ISO 14001-certified firms have more reason to focus their attention on reducing visible
pollutants than less visible ones. The higher physical visibility of air pollution in relation
to water pollution gives firms the incentive to invest more resources into reducing air
contaminants than water contaminants. Our research shows that the effect of nation-
al-level ISO 14001 adoption on pollution reductions is more pronounced in air than
it is in water. Importantly, we observe this effect only in countries with less stringent
government regulations.

Direct and spillover effects

We decided to undertake our research at the country level to examine how counts of
ISO 14001 influence country-wide pollution emissions. One advantage of a country-level
study is that it can gauge both ISO 14001’s direct effects on certified firms and its spillover
effects on non-certified firms.
Research suggests that ISO 14001’s EMS spillovers from members to non-members occur
through two mechanisms. First, ISO-certified firms can encourage their suppliers to
establish their own EMS. For example, multinational corporations often ask their overseas
subsidiaries to promote the EMS culture in their supply chain. Second, non-certified
firms located in the vicinity of ISO 14001-certified firms may seek to imitate their neigh-
bours’ EMS practices even though they may not seek third-party certification, perhaps
because of cost reasons. This is particularly true for small and medium-sized firms that
are not able to absorb the overhead costs associated with a formal certified EMS. The
bottom line is that any attempt to compute ISO 14001’s effect on pollution reduction must
take into account the efforts of both ISO 14001-certified firms and non-certified firms.
A country-level analysis allows for this full accounting of ISO 14001’s possible effects.

Pressures and other pollutants

To sum things up, ISO 14001’s pollution reduction effects vary depending on the visibility
of the pollutants and the stringency of government regulations. Two concrete implica-
tions emerge from this observation. First, the effectiveness of certification clubs must
be understood in the context of regulatory pressures which the firms face. In fact, the
largest pay-off from ISO 14001 in terms of pollution reduction can be seen in developing
contexts where government regulations are lax. In such cases, certification clubs seem to
work as substitutes for governmental regulation in protecting the environment. Second,
environmental protection stewardship has opportunity costs. A firms’ effort to reduce
pollution comes at the expense of its effort to do something else. Such trade-offs moti-
vate firms to think strategically about how to maximize their pay-offs from stewardship
commitments. After all, an important motivation for joining certification clubs is the
reputational benefit to be gained. We find pollutants’ physical visibility to be an important
factor in this regard. Hence, both managers and scholars should assess how these exter- If you are interested
nal pressures systematically shape firms’ choices regarding environmental stewardship. in reading the original
Here’s the bottom line : ISO 14001 is not a foolproof recipe for firms to successfully manage article, please go to :
their environmental impacts – corporate, governmental and financial considerations http://faculty.
all have their part to play in the equation. It is, however, a membership card for wider washington.edu/
recognition of a firm’s sustainability. So why are you taking so long to join the club ? aseem/cps.pdf

#ISOfocus_105 | 31
BU
buzz
The Antarctica fatality

The huge West Antarctic ice sheet is in the early stages of

collapse, warn alarmed scientists in two new studies recently
carried out in the region. The reason is likely to be man-made
global warming and the ozone hole which have changed the Ant-
arctic winds and warmed the water that is now eating away at the
feet of the ice.
According to NASA glaciologist Eric Rignot, the “ grounding line ”,
which anchors the glacier to the bedrock, has essentially been breached.
This is bad news as the melt could eventually lead to a rise in sea levels of
up to 12 ft in the next hundred years. What’s more, it is happening faster than
scientists had anticipated.
“ Collapse ” is perhaps too strong a word, but the system is in a sort of a chain reaction
and it is unstoppable. Or is it ? To avert catastrophe, we need to take a proactive
approach to managing our environmental issues. With the ISO 14000 family, ISO
is meeting the climate challenge head on with standards for greenhouse gas
accounting, verification and emission trading, and for measuring the carbon
footprint of products – helping organizations work towards common and sus-
tainable environmental practices.
Once we reach a critical mass of people using the standards, the results will
speak for themselves. So although, according to Rignot, curbing emissions from
fossil fuels will probably not halt the melting, it could slow the speed of the problem.
Unstoppable ? Really ?

The future’s bright, the future’s solar !

Could this be the end of the internal combustion engine ?

In the mid-2000s, with the threat of global warming on
everybody’s lips, Scott Brusaw, an electrical engineer
from Idaho, and his wife Julie dreamed up the concept
of “ solar roadways ”. The solar panels would act as a
massive energy generator that could feed the grid during
daytime and recharge electric vehicles as you drive, thus
reducing US greenhouse gas emissions by 75 %.
This quirky idea involved creating a solar-powered
super-strong case (think black box for planes !) that
could house sensitive electronics, and then embed-
ding solar cells to store energy inside the case, LEDs to
illuminate the road lines and heating elements to resist
ice and snow.
Crazy ? Not as crazy as it sounds ! ISO has been looking
into solar power as a renewable energy source for years
and has developed a number of standards relating to
solar energy equipment, including ISO 9050 relating
to glass in building and ISO 10217 for materials used in
solar water heaters. Now, with the Brusaws working to
perfect their design, let’s wager that another revolution-
ary technology will soon be requiring standardization.

#ISOfocus_105 | 32
UZZ
ISO standards are good for us

We already knew that ISO’s “ smart business ” approach helped organ-

izations big and small build strong businesses, whatever the industry.
As a reliable source of technological know-how, International Stand-
ards are precious in aiding countries expand economies and build
capacity for competing in the global economy. With its portfolio of
more than 19 400 standards, ISO is offering businesses, government
institutions and societies remarkable solutions on all aspects of sus-
tainable development : economic, environmental, and societal.
Now it seems that ISO standards are also good for the man on the
street. Research by the World Bank and the International Trade Centre
(ITC) is showing that widespread use of ISO standards in enhancing
fiscal growth. For example, the Information and Communications
Technology Center, one of the biggest contributors in this new global
Dairy sector on the boil
market, takes full advantage of the coordination benefits offered by
with new collaboration
standards. Job creation has spiraled as a positive spin-off of increased
A lot has happened since ISO and the productivity, helping to bring people out of the poverty trap of low
International Dairy Federation (IDF) incomes and rising living costs.
agreed, back in 2001, to publish joint ITC’s Senior Adviser for Export Quality Management, Khemraj Ramful,
International Standards for methods confirms the trend, saying ISO standards play a big part in developing
of analysis and sampling (MAS). The the economy. So what’s in it for you and me ? Geared towards improv-
long-standing collaboration has ing exports, ISO standards have a huge impact on poverty alleviation
given the dairy sector over 17 MAS and rising unemployment rates.
standards, which are widely regarded
as the reference in the industry.
Now, with global drivers such as food
security, food integrity and global
harmonization, the two organiza-
tions are stepping up their team
work, hoping to capitalize on their
core strengths as well as extend their
work beyond MAS.
Expanding its scope, the new strat-
egy will focus on creating synergies
with other standards development
organizations, along the lines of
its recent collaboration with AOAC
INTERNATIONAL for infant formulas ;
delivering new services including
an international reference system
for somatic cell counting used in
udder health ; and increasing expert
participation from underrepresented
geographies to help shape the market
in years to come.
The new vision provides a focused
framework for ISO and IDF to proac-
tively manage international stand-
ardization for the dairy sector in the
future, making sure the milk we drink
is nutritious and safe.

#ISOfocus_105 | 33
 BMW
gears up clean cars
At last a car that is good
for the planet ! With its all-
electric BMW i3, German
car manufacturer BMW
has successfully brought
to market the world’s
first premium automobile
conceived from the ground
up for zero-emission
mobility.
#ISOfocus_105 | 34
T
he new BMW i3 car took the European market
by storm when it hit the roads in 2013, leaving
a squeaky clean environmental footprint in its
trail. Built for everyday use, the pioneering model
boasts an electric motor whose efficiency far exceeds
that of its petrol or diesel counterparts, a regeneration
system that returns braking energy to the battery and
an energy-efficient production process.
As a result, the new battery electric vehicle emits 30 %
to 50 % less life-cycle greenhouse gases than equivalent
conventional vehicles. In fact, the cute little number has
since been the proud recipient of several of the motor
industry’s most prestigious international awards – espe-
cially the World Car Design of the Year Award 2014 and
the World Green Car Award 2014 – gleaned at the New
York International Auto Show in April this year.
To fulfil their ambitious green vision, BMW Group opted
for a full life-cycle assessment (LCA) of its car-making
process, resulting in them getting certified to two lead-
ing LCA standards, ISO 14040 and ISO 14044. ISOfocus
caught up with the BMW Product Sustainability Team
responsible for leading the project to find out how the
car giant is reinventing mobility.
Photo : BMW
With excellent aerodynamics for reduced wind resistance and energy consumption, this nippy little car is BMW’s latest concept
for cool city driving.
ISOfocus : BMW i3 is a revolutionary car for city driving.
Can you tell us how the BMW i mobility concept was
born ?
BMW Product Sustainability Team : The “ project i ” ini­tia­
tive, a think-tank created to develop sustainable mobility
solutions and redefine the manufacturing of cars, has been
developing visionary high-tech vehicles and mobility ser-
vices since 2007. The sub-brand BMW i and its BMW i3 car
were the inspirational by-products born of this pioneer-
ing venture.
Building a visionary car is a huge undertaking. How did
you get started ?
To make BMW i3 – the first zero-emissions mass-produced
BMW – a reality, we knew we had to take a serious look at
our product life cycle. So we set to work to identify sus-
tainable engineering targets over the entire value chain
that would have a positive impact on our environmental
performance. This was made possible by carrying out a
full life-cycle assessment (LCA) of the concept car from the
early strategic stages. The inspection looked at the entire
life cycle from extraction of raw materials and manufacture
#ISOfocus_105 | 35
We knew we had to recycling in order to get a clear picture of all environ-
mental aspects. We used ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 to
help us monitor and reach our targets.
to take a serious look How did you go about implementing the life-cycle
assessment ?
at our product life cycle. The LCA was performed using the product sustainability
software GaBi© to help gather valuable life-cycle inven-
tory data on specific technologies and processes carried
out at our Group production plants. This technology
was also used to obtain feedback during the use phase
of the vehicle.

What have been the main benefits of LCA on your

production process ?

LCA was used as a monitoring and decision-making tool

for implementing performance-enhancing measures.
Throughout the entire development phase up to the start
of the series production in September 2013, the vehicle
was designed according to set targets.
As a result, compared with conventional vehicles of
similar size and performance, the BMW i3 that is on the
market today has a global warming potential (GWP)

Great attitude inside and out ! The BMW i3 interior feels spacious and light thanks to the simplified centre console,
large windscreen and side windows, and a clean, sharp dashboard.
Photo : BMW

#ISOfocus_105 | 36
Photo : BMW
From left to right : Juliane Kluge, Simone Lempa-Kindler, Ben Trouvay and Marzia Traverso worked hard to reinvent
mobility with sustainability in mind.
along its life cycle at least a third lower if powered with
EU electricity mix in the use phase, and over 50 % lower
when powered with renewable energy.
What materials did you use for the new architecture ?
The BMW i3 needs to travel light ! Creating a design that was
robust yet lightweight and would guarantee a low energy
consumption in use was key to achieving our goal. The new
architecture incorporates a lot of sustainable lightweight
materials such as aluminium from recycled or renewable-­
energy sources and carbon-fibre-reinforced plastics (CFRP)
produced using 100 % hydroelectric power. We also needed
to ensure a carbon-neutral, energy-efficient production
process at our BMW i vehicle plant in Leipzig.
You chose to get certified by an external expert. How
important was this for you ?
Being certified to ISO 14044 by a neutral third party was
a vital step in the process to ensure the scientific and
technical validity of the LCA results and guarantee the
transparency and consistency of the study report.
What challenges do you foresee for the green car indus-
try in the future ?
At the moment, electric vehicles still tend to have a larger
carbon burden at the production phase than conventional
vehicles in order to reduce their environmental impact in
the use phase. With this in mind, we need to ensure even
better environmental design and more intensive supply
chain management when creating the sustainable models
of tomorrow.
Any tips for businesses thinking of performing a life-­
cycle assessment of their environmental sustainability ?
Performing an assessment of a product’s life from cradle
to grave is by definition a big project. Work methodically
and take time to do things properly. And enlist the help
of external consultants to keep you on the right track. vr
#ISOfocus_105 | 37
 Sustainable

for all
energy

From 2010 to 2035:

Global Energy Demand
will grow by up to 33 %

3 objectives :
Universal access

Energy efficiency

Renewable energy

#ISOfocus_105 | 38
Today
Sustainable development is not possible without
sustainable energy. Hundreds of ISO International
Standards, including the “ game-changing ”
ISO 50001, can help achieve substantial energy
savings and performance – but to do so, they need
to be used! Here’s what the world’s energy situation
looks like today.
Tomorrow
Sustainable energy powers opportunity. ISO Interna-
tional Standards impact energy metrics, efficiency,
usage and performance. Increasing their use will
support the growing penetration of low-carbon
technologies and improvements in energy efficiency
to achieve a more sustainable energy future. Here’s
what the world’s energy could look like tomorrow.

1.3 billion people

lack electricity to light their homes Less than
and conduct business. USD 50 billion
per year

for universal
access to
Over 95 % are located in Asia and
modern
sub-Saharan Africa energy services

USD 300 billion USD 1 trillion

investment in key investment in key
energy efficiency energy efficiency
markets worldwide markets worldwide

20 % 31 %
of renewables of renewables
contribute to will contribute
total power to total power
generation generation

2010 2035

Source : www.se4all.org

#ISOfocus_105 | 39
BU
buzz
CEO Forum goes to Ghana

ISO Secretary-General Rob Steele and Nicolas Fleury, Director of Marketing, Communication and Information, attended
a new edition of the CEO Forum, which took place in Accra, Ghana, earlier this year.
The three-day event generated lots of constructive exchange between ISO and national standards body (NSB)
representatives from 18 English-speaking countries in Africa on the best way to deploy national strategies. The objective
of the forum was to address challenges faced by NSBs in the African region and foster cooperation.
Based on a winning formula of training, information sharing and group work, which drew on the active participation
of all those present, the forum provided a dynamic platform to discuss best practice and share experiences on basic
strategy, process optimization, management, finance and good governance in NSBs.
During his sojourn in West-Africa, Rob Steele had a chance to visit the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), ISO member for
the country and host of the ISO CEO Forum, and meet with Ghana’s Vice-President, Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur, and
Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuye, Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, who gave the opening address of the CEO Forum.

From left : Nicolas Fleury, ISO Director of Marketing, Communication and Information, Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuye, Deputy
Minister of Trade and Industry, Rob Steele, ISO Secretary-General, Dr. George Crentsil, Executive Director, GSA.

Singapore conference benefits standards

conferenceGoodwood Park Hotel, Singapore, 3-4 April 2014 Why are so many companies still missing out on big business ? While many
organizations from the private and public sectors are reaping the benefits of
The Benefits of Standards using standards and investing time and effort in their development, others
Demonstrating and
are blind to their obvious advantages and view them as an unnecessary
communicating the value of
financial burden.
standards to industry,
government Clearly, getting organizations on the standardization bandwagon is not as
and society easy as it seems. For national standards bodies to dialogue with stakeholder
groups, being able to broadcast the tangible benefits that standards bring
to business activities – and, more generally, to citizens and society – is
therefore essential.
Addressing this issue, a conference held in Singapore in April 2014 focused
on how to better communicate the value of standards to industry, govern-
ment and society. The interactive gathering provided a unique opportunity
for ISO members, industry leaders and government policy makers to thrash
out ideas for making creative use of the extensive communication materials
The conference held in Singapore developed by ISO to promote the benefits of standards and make sure
on 3-4 April 2014. organizations “ think ISO ” in the future !

#ISOfocus_105 | 40
UZZ
Reaching out to East Africa
Representatives from 11 East-African
countries, members of ISO, gathered
in Nairobi, Kenya, in May 2014 to share
experiences on how best to market and
communicate about ISO standards. The
course was delivered by Katie Bird and
Regis Brinster from the ISO Central Sec-
retariat, under the stewardship of KEBS,
ISO’s Kenyan member.
Talks focused on how to elicit wider
interest in international standardization,
highlight the benefits of standards to busi-
nesses, big and small, and disseminate
the information contained in standards in
new and creative ways that match custom-
ers’ expectations in the digital age.
A visit to KEBS’ headquarters in Nairobi
was an eye-opener, shedding light on
the excellent work accomplished by this
energetic and enterprising institution,
home to over 800 people working in cer-
tification, laboratory testing and stand-
ards development.
The course was run as part of ISO’s tech-
nical assistance and training programme
for developing countries and aims to
encourage distribution by members of
ISO deliverables and strengthen ties
between organizations in the region as a
way of inspiring synergies in the future.
Participants at the marketing and communication course in Nairobi, Kenya.
Know before you buy
In a changing world where global trade, e-commerce and the
advent of online review systems give consumers more market-
place leverage, how do you make informed choices based on the
influx of information provided in shops and online ? Conversely,
how do suppliers communicate effectively with their customers
about goods and services ?
These issues came under scrutiny at the COPOLCO workshop
(ISO’s committee on consumer policy) held in Milan, Italy, in May
2014 on the theme “ Building confidence in a business-to-con-
sumer relationship ”. The workshop examined market trends,
current models, and tools that help suppliers communicate about
their goods and services in a way that meets consumer expecta-
tions for safety, performance, sustainability, origin and durability.
The event, organized by UNI, ISO member for Italy, and supported
by Regione Lombardia, attracted more than a hundred partici-
pants – proof, if need be, of the importance of consumers’ voice in
this area. As Antonio Compagnoni, Consumer Representative at
the National Council of Consumers and Users (CNCU), the Italian
consumer advisory association, insightfully noted, “ Consumers
have the first role among stakeholder groups in defining stand-
ards, best practice and verification systems around the world.”
#ISOfocus_105 | 41
 From humble beginnings as a small
Singapore-based family business,
HSL Constructor Pte Ltd. grew to
become a key player in the world
of civil engineering. But at the
pinnacle of its success and with
soaring energy bills, the company
was forced to overhaul its entire
power system to make the energy
it used work harder.
Photo : HSL
Singapore cuts
carbon and costs
Becoming energy-efficient should be our highest priority. Civil
engineering and construction firm HSL Constructor Pte Ltd. dis-
covered this the hard way. Founded in Singapore in 1994 as a
small start-up company in the marine civil engineering sector,
HSL soon became the leading provider of innovative engineer-
ing solutions, leaving an impressive trail of landmark projects
across virtually every industry requiring foreshore structures
and facilities.
Helmed by visionary leaders and a passionate team of profes-
sionals, the company has since taken its reputation for quality
to new levels, branching out into related areas including plant
engineering, industrial building construction, ground engineer-
ing and third-party inspection services, both on land and at sea.
But with tight budgets, environmental pressures and rising
energy demands clamouring for attention, HSL had to take
action. Improving energy performance and cutting costs, while
still honouring its environmental commitments seemed like a tall
We wanted our energy order. To help bring its energy consumption under control, HSL
turned to ISO 50001, the world’s leading energy management

management to be system standard, gaining an internationally recognized certifi-

cation in the process. Here, ISOfocus asks Grace Lim-Quek, Head,
HR & Administration, at HSL, how the Singaporean engineering
sustainable. company played the power game.

ISOfocus : What prompted HSL to use ISO 50001 ?

Grace Lim-Quek : Each year, HSL consumes approximately

332 000 kWh of electricity. Our energy consumption has been
on the rise since 2009 – hitting an all-time high of 373 000 kWh
– but we knew we could reduce it. We decided to go ahead with
ISO 50001 certification because we wanted our energy manage-
ment to be sustainable. The standard provides detailed specifi-
cations on all aspects of an energy management system. Now,
with a certification to maintain, we are impelled to follow the
standard’s requirements to ensure our energy management efforts
remain sustainable.

#ISOfocus_105 | 43

Photo : HSL
Appointed trained personnel manually gathers
data (i.e. quantity of diesel) from the diesel
storage tank.
Photo : HSL
Collecting the meter reading (hour) from one
of the identified significant energy uses (SEUs)
equipment.
Photo : HSL
One of the power meters that monitors the energy
consumption patterns for individual floors.
#ISOfocus_105 | 44
Can you briefly describe the steps that were taken to
implement the standard ?
We carried out a stringent assessment of our processes
in order to track our energy use. The investigation
involved analysing our energy data and organizational
factors such as our scope for improving the way we use
energy. This resulted in a set of nine significant energy
uses (SEUs), which we felt painted an accurate picture
of the organization’s energy performance at that time.
Once we had identified the SEUs, we were able to set
ourselves realistic targets to improve our performance.
But in order to do that, we needed to fully analyse our
current energy performance, which involved mapping
out how efficiently these SEUs were functioning and
determining the factors affecting their performance.
This, in turn, helped us earmark a number of energy-­
saving opportunities. By assessing the potential savings,
efficiency and process improvements, we were able to
define challenging yet achievable targets.
What was the biggest challenge you encountered ?
Without a doubt, our biggest challenge was ensuring
the integrity of the diesel data collected on some of the
equipment for monitoring and analysis purposes. There
is limited technology on the market to automate this
process, so the data collection has to be done manually.
This poses real problems because of the broad range of
equipment we use.
How many staff were involved in the project ?
Our energy management team consists of five people,
who work on the project part time.
What were the main results and impacts of imple-
menting the standard ?
The reason we embarked on energy management in the
first place was because our Chairman was concerned
about HSL’s carbon footprint. So we’re right on target
as one of the tangible benefits of ISO 50001 has been a
marked reduction in our environmental impact through
lowering our greenhouse gas emissions.
It has been a win-win situation all round. Defining data
collection methods and processes has increased our
 understanding of energy consumption, helping us boost
our energy efficiency and performance while reducing
the overall costs. This has led to greater transparency on
how our energy resources are managed, which has done
our public image the world of good. But an unexpected
and extremely positive side-effect has been the sense of
empowerment it has given our employees who now feel
they have a responsible role to play in the planning and
management of resources. At HSL, we pride ourselves on
leading by example ; our efforts have been instrumen-
tal in promoting energy management best practice and
good energy management behaviour – both within the
company and without !

What advice would you give to other businesses

thinking of implementing ISO 50001 ?

Get senior management on board ! This is crucial to

ensure you are allocated all the resources you need to
Photo : HSL implement the standard. vr
Upgrading towards stronger human capital –
Grace Quek-Lim, Head of HR & Administration at HSL.

A screen monitoring electricity consumption in real time is displayed in the lobby to keep employees motivated.

#ISOfocus_105 | 45
 Alexia adventures How one little girl changes the world.

Mommy, why aren’t we

recycling at home ?

stan
mary

?
tommy
alexia

Mommy, why do you

let the tap water
run for so long ?

Mommy, why don’t

we drive an electric
car ?

#ISOfocus_105 | 46
? Mommy, when I grow
up and become a boss,
will I care about our
planet ?

Stan, what do
you think ?

About what Alexia About what, darling ?

said of course ?

You’d have to be
stupid not to !

...my point
exactly !

#ISOfocus_105 | 47
 No more rashes and tears
with new OBP collection
on biological evaluation

Don’t put your consumers Painful skin irritations, rashes and eye infections due to the
chemicals and plastics used in medical devices (health or med-

and patients in harm’s

way. Ensure your medical
devices are tried and
ical instruments) are preventable. Whether for items as simple
as a tongue depressor or as complicated as prosthetic limbs or
implantable drug delivery pumps, look no further than this latest
collection to minimize patient hazards and maximize treatment.
This new collection for biological evaluation of medical devices
contains all the parts of ISO 10993 that manufacturers, research-
ers, laboratories, and regulators involved in development, testing

tested prior to marketing or approval should not be without !

Access all the standards in one convenient location on the OBP

and use with the new and improve :

• The quality of medical and dental devices
• The safety of patients
OBP collection for • The basis for testing and certification

biological evaluation. As an added bonus, the collection includes ISO/TR 15499 on how
to plan and conduct the biological evaluation of a medical device
and, more importantly, how such an evaluation sits within the
activities of design control and risk management.

Benefits of online collections

With an ISO online collection, you are always guaranteed :

• The most up-to-date content : when a change is made
to a standard in the collection, your online library is
updated immediately
• Easy navigation : moving between standards has never been
easier with embedded links that let you “ jump ” from one
standard to another
• Universal access : you can access your library from any com-
puter or tablet as long as you have an Internet connection

The complete collection for biomedical evaluation of med-

ical devices is available for an annual subscription fee of
375 Swiss francs.

Find out more on :

www.iso.org/iso/obp-biologicalevaluation
#ISOfocus_105 | 48
Contamination-free cleanrooms
with new OBP collection

Are you willing to put From medical facilities to integrated circuit manufactures, hun-
dreds of millions of cleanrooms are used by more and more indus-

your manufacturing
tries where the highest level of cleanliness and hygiene is of vital
importance. With applications for small-scale workstations or
sophisticated factory-wide facilities, the new ISO online collection
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controlled environments from one single source.
Control contamination This new collection contains over 10 standards designed to pro-
vide an in-depth review of the practices required to eliminate

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tical points of view.
The following topics are covered :
• Contaminants and how they are measured

latest online collection for • Cleanrooms and clean zones

• Cleaning and decontamination

cleanrooms and control • Cleanroom clothing

• The impact of people on cleanliness

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The complete collection for cleanroom technology is available

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#ISOfocus_105 | 49
 Get it
straight
from the experts !
Find out what’s new
in the ISO 14001 revision
in a Google+ hangout on :
2014-09-25